Tag Archives: sew smaller

It’s been quiet here lately, but I have been doing a tiny bit of sewing. Literally, only 2″ finished square little! With the hustle and bustle of life, my sewing progress has slowed a bit. I’m still sewing, and trying to create daily, but progress is slowwww. When I saw that Sue from Moss & Lotus was having a Tomte Sew Along on Instagram, I knew I wanted in. I had been admiring the cute little gnome-like Tomtes popping up in my feed, and resisting the urge to add yet another project to my unfinished projects pile. Then Sue asked me if I would make a block or two, and honestly, how could I say no? These guys (and gals) are adorable! Plus, the bigger Tomtes will make wonderful coaster or mug rug gifts. I love having an end use in mind before beginning a new project!

Before stitching up a Peder or Halvor Tomte (my two favs at the moment), I had to sew one of the adorable Tiny Tomtes! This Tiny Tomte is a free addition when you buy the Tomte Bundle and is the size of a mini charm square. I’m going to try to resist the urge to make sweet little Tiny Tomte ornaments for everyone I know, but no promises! This particular little guy will happily live on our tree this year, once I give him a little French knot nose and finish him up with some hand quilting and binding.

I used a Henry Glass print for the background, since the mushroom and snail seemed right at home with this Tiny Tomte. This print actually also happens to be the very first fabric I ever bought, years and years ago before I began quilting. The red fabric is from my scrap bin, some gorgeous Oakshott Lipari from my Vesuvius quilt. The white is a tiny scrap of Robert Kaufman Kona white. These blocks would actually be really fun uses for any tiny scraps. I used 50wt Aurifil 2600-Dove thread since that lives in my machine and works for everything.

After sewing up this Tiny Tomte, I had to take him out on an adventure in the woods so that he would feel at home. During my youngest’s nap, I ventured out behind our house and Tiny Tomte had a fun photo shoot! We found a gorgeous shelf fungus on a tree stump, so Tiny Tomte played beneath it.

And on top of it!

He climbed some trees and gathered some souvenirs.

A pinecone three times his size and an evergreen bough will have to hold him over until we cut our Christmas tree this year. I think they will do just fine.

I’m certainly testing this question lately! I’ve written about the mini mini quilt swap craze, and while it seems to have died down a bit on Instagram, I’m still plugging along working to complete the many mini minis I have promised to swap. Such is life when sewing gets done 20 minutes at a time! One such mini mini has morphed into a true test of “how small can you go?”

I designed a tiny foundation paper pieced geometric feather for the mini mini I’m making for Renee at Quilts of a Feather, since I wanted to create a purple feather (her favorite color is purple and feather is probably a clear choice), but I also wanted it to be unique. The tiny pattern crazy me developed has 60 foundation paper pieced pieces in block smaller than 3″x4″.

Believe it or not, the foundation paper piecing part went smoothly. That’s one of the wonders of foundation paper piecing–you can literally sew ANYthing.

I’ve only removed the papers from half so far, but even that isn’t too bad. I quite enjoy it, actually. When foundation paper piecing, I set my stitch length to 1.2 so the paper basically melts off. I encouraged some of the teeny tiny smaller than 1/16″ bits to come off using a cute stiletto I received as part of a swap last year. (Aside–did you know that a stiletto in quilting is a skinny tool that is thicker and a bit more blunt than a pin, and is used to help feed your fabric through your sewing machine, hold down little corners while sewing, or any other task you can derive? I *just* learned what a stiletto was and so I’m trying to use it more!)

Joining the two halves, on the other hand, was where the challenge truly arose. I broke a needle trying to get through all of those layers, and eventually settled on hand cranking my machine through the thickest part.

Needless to say, this baby does not lay flat, nor can I hope to press it flat no matter how much Flatter I use. But no worries! I plan to use a double layer of batting, perhaps only under the feather (I think it’s called trapunto) so that at least it won’t seem too out of place. But it appears I have my answer: this is as small as I can go, at least with this pattern!

I originally planned to trim the outer edge and needle turn appliqué the feather to the background fabric, a gorgeous glimmering square of Anna Maria Horner’s Loominous. After requesting some tips/advice from Carolyn Friedlander via email, I am approaching it in a different way per her advice; instead I’ll do reverse appliqué, where I’ll cut the hole in the background fabric, place it on top of the feather, and stitch it down around the feather’s edge. While it will be my first time trying reverse applique, I think I have a much better chance at success using this method. Thank you, Carolyn!

I’m leaning toward the lighter purple Aurifil for the stitching, so that it will blend in with the Loominous.

About Me

I’m a stay at home mom of three littles, wife, sewist of quilts and other beautiful things, knitter, gardener, yogi, and all in all lover of life. With three little kids, my only sewing time is after bedtime. Thus the Night Quilter was born. This blog is all about my stitching: both quilting and knitting projects, as well as the creation of my own patterns and any other inspiration I find along the way.

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